Volume I of a comprehensive two-part identification guide dealing exclusively with the birds of this region. It covers all the species, including vagrants, found in Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela, Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. More than 2,300 species are described in depth in the text, describing geographical variation, identification, status, habitat, voice and taxonomy. Detailed and comprehensive colour plates and distribution maps may be found in the second volume, Birds of Northern South America: An Identification Guide: Plates and Maps. This authoritative book will not only be an indispensable guide to the visiting birder, but also a vital tool for those engaged in work to conserve and study the avifauna of this region, which is of such importance to both the indigenous species and those which pass through on migration.

Biographic Memoirs: Volume 56 contains the biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences and bibliographies of their published works. Each biographical essay was written by a member of the Academy familiar with the professional career of the deceased. For historical and bibliographical purposes, these volumes are worth returning to time and again.

This is the first paperback version of the second edition of the popular A Guide to the Birds of Panama. In the second edition, published in 1989, the authors expanded information on the birds of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras: approximately 200 new species were added to the material in the 1976 edition. Over 300 additional species, some of them Panamanian, were illustrated. Sixteen new plates were added, and three of the original plates were replaced by improved versions. Throughout the book changes were made to accommodate the explosion in knowledge of the birds of Panama and nearby areas and of neotropical birds in general. The basic sequence and systematics of the AOU 1983 Check-list were adopted. Also included in the revised edition was expanded and updated information on birdfinding in Panama, prepared with the assistance of two of Panama's best resident birders. The book also contains a special section outlining developments in Panama ornithology and conservation. "A sophisticated treatment of one of the world's richest avifaunas."--The Quarterly Review of Biology